Bulls would have been better off if Stormers game was called off, but coach proud

While the postponement or cancellation of Saturday’s weather-battered north-south derby between the Bulls and Stormers would have benefitted the Bulls in terms of league standing and avoiding injuries sustained in the game, director of rugby Jake White took pride in his team taking the opportunity to show their bravery.

The Stormers clinched a nail-biting 19–16 win at Loftus to overtake the Bulls in the South African shield of the United Rugby Championship (URC).

Misery upon misery

Furthermore, the Bulls – who are already suffering from injuries to their three first-choice captains, Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw and Marcell Coetzee, plus last year’s Golden Boot winner Johan Goosen and Springbok Cameron Hanekom – saw misery compound on misery with three more star players leaving the field due to injury.

Springboks Canan Moodie and Marco van Staden, already going off the field in the first half, were joined by Springbok hopeful Cobus Wiese for what looked like a hamstring injury in the second half.

Just last week, Wiese spoke of his excitement at his selection for the Springbok alignment camp next month.

This all led to White admitting it might have been better for his side if the game had been postponed to the next day, or called off altogether.

In the latter scenario, the teams would have shared two points and the Bulls would have remained at the top of the conference.

Bulls happy to take chance to show bravery

Stormy weather battered Pretoria throughout the afternoon, leading to some flooding of the field and concerns of lightning.

The match was delayed by an hour and 15 minutes after officials checked the pitch repeatedly and made calls on the weather.

The field looked much better by the time the game got underway and a sizeable crowd still turned up to support the sides despite most of the game being played in rain.

“I’m not saying take the two [points] and get out of there,” White said, explaining that if the game had been cancelled after both provided days were stormed out, the Bulls would not have had a chance to show their bravery to go for the win.

“I would like to have known that we would have given ourselves a chance to win the conference, to get a couple more points ahead of the Sharks. That obviously didn’t materialise.”

Bulls still in a good position

Despite all this White is not overly concerned because they are still third on the overall log.

They are in a good position to qualify for the play-offs and no team that has finished top of the log and hosted home semi-finals and finals, has won the competition since South African teams joined in the 2021/22 season.